Rusty's rants and raves!

I am, as Thomas Jefferson once said, an old (wo)man but a young gardener.

The family stuff.. we live in central Pennsylvania, one grown son, a DIL, and one grand daughter. The hubby is helping his family an ailing relative, so we email.

We have been puttering about our garden for over 30 years, and have finally decided with the droughts that occur so much more frequently, to flower garden in pots.
Those are easier to water, and move about. So we save rain water, faucet water run to get clean water in the pipes and whatever other rain water we can capture, because using bought water was getting expensive. I made two rain barrels so far and as soon as I locate a bigger container I will have two more on the other side of the house.

What do we have in the gardens? mostly shubbery with lots of annual color. Whatever strikes my fancy at the garden center.

I have three raised beds for veggies, garlic, Egyptian onions, cabbage, lettuce in the spring and late fall. Broccoli, tomatoes of all kinds. yellow and red, and the Roma sauce makers, tons of basil, Italian parsley, a dwarf sour cherry tree that a friend didn’t have room for and this year a volunteer acorn squash.

On the fence between us and the neighbor a concord grapevine. the birds usually beat me to it most of the year, but every so often I get enough to make jam.

In the shady part of the yard there is a hosta collection and this year there are way too many wild violets. They are helping keep the ground from drying out so they can stay. I rather like the widlness of it, if only the no see ‘ems weren’t there!

Along the sides of the house we have planted an assortment of shubbery, several ’anonymouses" and a holly tree that I started from a cutting.

the the middle of the yard we have around a 500 gallon pond, which at last count contained about 20 gold fish of various sizes. Again, ‘donations’ from friends who thought they wanted to start a pond but decided it was work! It’s only work if you don’t want to do it, I think.

Six cats live here.. No wait.. I wait on six cats.. that’s it! Two are almost inside girls, three like to be outside in the summer but hang close to the house and the oldest ( my grandson) is 14. He hangs out in the neighborhood and everyone knows him as Bubba. A large, tuxedo cat. about 14 pounds of muscle.

We also have a copper coat, blue eyed siberian husky named Bogie or Ole Blue, depending on my mood. He and I take a hike several times a day, usually about 2 miles total. In this heat we are doing way less, and much earlier.

I guess you could say we are eclectic gardeners, as we do whimsey sort of things. This past spring the hubs bought me a partial face pot. It still has pansys growing but I suspect this 99F+ heat will be their end.

I hope this has given you a glimps of my interests. And I forgot some semi-inportant things.

I tend to get bored with my sidewalk so I paint something on it every several years. And I am researching and writing a book on Thomas Jefferson. AND if you ask Crissue about my cookie baking skills you will get an unbiased response. 8-))

I look forward to chatting with as many of you as possible and exchanging gardening and cooking info as time permits.

oh welcome, your garden sounds lovely and thanks for sharing about yourself.. Looking forward to seeing your garden..You've got your hands full with all those animals but I'm sure they keep you company and give you lots of love..